HB 495 - AS INTRODUCED
2003 SESSION
04/01
HOUSE BILL 495
COMMITTEE: Criminal Justice and Public Safety
This bill provides that the owner of a wireless computer network shall be responsible for securing such network and that negligent or otherwise inadvertent access to a wireless computer network shall constitute an affirmative defense.
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Explanation: Matter added to current law appears in bold italics.
Matter removed from current law appears [in brackets and struckthrough.]
Matter which is either (a) all new or (b) repealed and reenacted appears in regular type.
03-0894
04/01
STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Three
AN ACT relative to unauthorized access to a wireless computer network.
Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:
1 Computer Related Offenses; Network Security. Amend RSA 638:17, I to read as follows:
I.(a) A person is guilty of the computer crime of unauthorized access to a computer or computer network when, knowing that the person is not authorized to do so, he or she knowingly accesses or causes to be accessed any computer or computer network without authorization. It shall be an affirmative defense to a prosecution for unauthorized access to a computer or computer network that:
[(a)] (1) The person reasonably believed that the owner of the computer or computer network, or a person empowered to license access thereto, had authorized him or her to access; or
[(b)] (2) The person reasonably believed that the owner of the computer or computer network, or a person empowered to license access thereto, would have authorized the person to access without payment of any consideration; or
[(c)] (3) The person reasonably could not have known that his or her access was unauthorized.
(b) The owner of a wireless computer network shall be responsible for securing such computer network. It shall be an affirmative defense to a prosecution for unauthorized access to a wireless computer network if the unauthorized access complies with the conditions set forth in subparagraph I(a)(1)-(3).
2 Effective Date. This act shall take effect January 1, 2004.